Fedex International Mail Contract

[9drvr]

FedEx contract --- Good work!!!!

I would like to make a few comments on the USPS mail contract, and in closeing, a simple request.

First, congratulations to FedEx on the win.

You have the management expertise, aircraft lift, maintenance and logistics support and infrastructure to do well.

I know whereof I speak.....i am a out of work/furloughed Emery DC-8 Captain.

Emery was ask, told, and begged to get more aircraft and end their reliance on a fleet of ill maintained, financially strapped airlift contractors. The USPS wanted the cost controlled at one level; at Emery, not at the contractor.

When the USPS wanted the status of a certain trip or maintenance delay, Emery had to jump through hoops to contact contractors, get answers and find solutions. Emery never had control on the contractors cost, and as such, no control on spare parts, maintenance, training and all the scams and under-table dealing. This ultimately lead to less reliability, and less service to the USPS, and the lose of the contract.

FedEx has management control at every level of the operation, and is doing very, very well. GO FEDEX!!!

Sorry about hurt feelings to my air cargo friends, but you also know this is the truth.

Emery's inept mismangement and bungleing of the contract, equals my and many other hard working Emery and contractor flight crews termination and furloughs.

In closeing, may I ask for some assistance???

Do any readers on this forum know of the true, correct hiring status at FedEx, my #1 choice and UPS, DHL, and Airborne??

With 20 years + experience in air cargo, I have yet to be contacted, much less interviewed at these 4 companies.

I have 14,000 hrs total, 8000 hours of 4 engine heavy jet, 5000 hours heavy jet PIC, no accidents or violations. Embry-Riddle degree, high level security clearence and current US passport.

If any reader can provide any assistance in the job search, I will be in your debt. This will sincerely, be very, very much appreciated.

Best wishes to everyone in this troubled airline economy.


9drvr.

 

[habubuaza]

Tremendous amount of misinformation about USPS and the contract. Too much to get into all of it. The ANET contract was not done by Emery. The ANET contract was awarded to Emery and Subbed out to Ryan and Express One. Ryan and Express One was able to share the contract after a law suit in the mid 90's SHOWING THAT THE INITIAL ANET CONTRACT WAS AWARDED AFTER POSTAL OFFICAL WAS PAID OFF BY KITTY HAWK!!!! Yes, the USPS does have a history of this. And yes, people went to jail. It took a law suit to bring this out not some bogus congressional hearing.. hint.. hint.. The reliability was extremely high always in the 93-98% range. All aircraft and crews were cat2 or 3 delays/cancellations were almost non existent. PMPC or 2nd day air which Emery did do with 8's had nothing to do with Anet. The one carrier for airlift theme you guys are throwing around goes against the USPS' own charter. They ALWAYS want to have more than one source for airlift for obvious reasons, the least of which is to avoid interruptions due to labor disputes. One man and one man only convinced the Postal Board to sign off on this FEDEX/USPS deal. This is all old news and I don't understand why people are trying to change history. Try looking up Wall Street Journal Archives they did a great report on the USPS/FedEx deal a while ago. Anyway what's done is done, and don't be so convinced that nothing will ever turn up in the future.

 

[trashauler]

thanks for someone getting it right I still have an award one the office wall for 99.3 ontime performance by kitty hawk wnet contract and usps is paid fedex more for less than all the other contract airlines when you include wnet,dnet,and anet

 

[VaB]

Back to the original question

I know this thread has headed off in some other direction, but I rode on the crew bus the other day with one of the manager types. Someone asked him about the international postal thing and he said that it was all rumor and he wasn't sure where it was coming from.

Maybe he was just saying that since May 2004 is quickly approaching, but the captain I was flying with said that he felt this particular guy wasn't really a BS artist. So who knows. Just thought I would throw that out there. Most of the stuff I've heard on the crew bus so far has been wrong, so we'll see.

 

[AlbieF15]

Couple other points against international mail contract:

1-Domestic mail was a great benefit to FedEx, as it allowed more revenue with only moderately more expense. Although the company needed more aircrew, ramp agents, maintainers, and hub manpower, the fact is most of the domestic fleet was parked during the day. Thus, the daily flying hours went up on the airframes (UTE rate in mil speak), but no new airframes were required. 727s were manned at about 5 crews/plane, reflecting the lower UTE rate. Conversely, the international fleet already has a much higher UTE rate, and MD11s are manned at about 9.5/1. The MD-11 you fly into England isn't parked....while you sleep another crew arrives from the hotel to take the jet across the pond. So...it takes more crews to man international widebodies, and capacity on the jets is already full. So...to take on the international mail would like involve A) buying more planes and B) manning them at a higher rate than was required by the domestic mail contract. Both these factors mean the profit margin on international ops would likely be lower than the domestic contract, due to the extra crews, airframes, and additional manpower required. During indoc, Don Barber, VP Air Ops, told us "the mail contract is like ice cream....very good in moderate amounts, but unhealthy for us if we eat too much..." I translated that to mean "what we got is about right...."

2-If you read any of the international press, right now the European Union is a bit torqued at the US, claiming Bush is backing off "free trade" with certain protections for US steel and agricultural products. Our "war on terror" lost a lot of European support when it morphed into "attacking Iraq". The climate over there could really get nasty if we bump DHL off the contract, simply because it is (on paper) 30% German owned. Even if we could prove it is 51% German, sticking a knife into DHL right now would have serious political fallout on the other side of the Atlantic. I don't think Bush wants to aggrevate another old friend right now...

However...I have wanted an MD-11 right seat since I showed up in Memphis. I've been wrong before, and I'm sure I'll be wrong again, so maybe I'm wrong this time too....

 

[profile]

Albie,

There is part of the equation you missed and are probably not aware of.

The bulk of our international payload is NOT FedEx P1, but rather mostly low yield from freight forwarders (which is why FedEx participates in the IATA conferencs on tarriffs and trade). I don't know the exact numbers now, but it used to be that over 90% of our payloads were the low yield stuff. Essentially, we use that to justify the trunk airplane so we can then sell our own product on the same route. UPS, incidentally, does the same thing, although they do it through selling block space to third party carriers.

The notion of international mail was that the yield is higher, so the all else remains the same but the profit is a bit higher. Could mean taking some airplanes out of the desert, though.

I do not know of the validity of the international USPS contract, I do know that if it's being discussed it's at a very high level, so flight managers would likely not be informed until it was a done deal.

 

[HA25]

Does any of this have to do with the MD-10 program that was using DC10's in Goodyear AZ to make new planes for Fedex, and its sudden curtailment?

Is there a possible sudden uptick in Fedex business on the horizon?

 

[profile]

The MD-10 program is alive and well, no curtailment aside from choosing not to convert some basket-case hulls. Don't confuse the company choosing to use a different vendor for the conversions as a curtailment. Last I checked the program is ahead of schedule, with 15 MD-10-10s and 4 MD-10-30s flying.

 

[HA25]

Thats good news. I guess the rumors I heard were false. They somehow tied the change of vendor to a reduction in the USPS contract. I guess that is not the case. Anyway thanks for the good info.

 

[Gumbydammit]

What is the schedule of the DC-10/MD-10 conversion and will this REDUCE the need for newhires as the FE seats go away?

 

[profile]

Don't have the schedule in front of me, so can't say for sure offhand.

On the newhires, I would say that long term, yes, but short term we're getting more new airframes as well as the conversions, so no major effect on short term.